From Istanbul with Gibberish

The downloadable gibberish “Asian font” has finally reached the country of Turkey.

A recent posting in BMEzine’s gallery titled “Art by Vaso” displays this piece of gem:


http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/A60421/high/bmegl258969.jpg

Reader U.A. from Istanbul has also sent me these two photos:



Despite all the recent frictions between South Korea and Japan, it is nice to see a Japanese flag sharing the same piece of windshield in harmony with Korean Hangul.



"Asian theme" flower vase with gibberish characters.

Happy Mistake

Unlike tattoos, t-shirts are less permanent. They can be tossed away quickly to discard the embarrassment.

Yet, for that brief moment of hearing people quietly discussing what is on your t-shirt is still quite uncomfortable. Fearing the few minutes of uncertainly will come back to haunt you, it lingers in the back of your mind.



高興手違, what does this phrase mean?

高 is “high, elevated”, 興 means “thrive, prosper”, and their compound means “happy, cheerful, willing” in Chinese. 手 is “hand”, 違 means “violation, disobey”, and together, they mean “mistake, blunder” in Japanese, as in手違い (or てちがい).

“Happy [hand] violation”, is it some kind of idiom? Or a sexual euphuism for “happy ending” at one those dodgy massage parlors, which always advertise in the back of free publications? (Note: the missing dot in 違, perhaps the client is not done yet.)

Or it is just complete gibberish.

Ground Shipping System

I don’t know if the gibberish circled in red is supposed to be two characters or one.


(original)

If it was meant to be one character, then it would be the botched 陆 (陸), which means “land, ground, continent”. It could also be the simplified 書 (书) with a missing dot and simplified 撃 (击).

The two other characters are 拾 (pick up, collect, tidy up) and 式 (style, system, formula, rule).

So far, the best I can think of is “ground shipping system”.

Maybe he is a loyal UPS/DHL/FedEx employee or customer?

Update: Thanks to a comment by "lalawow", this tattoo may be "six-ten-two" or "sixty-two"

In Chinese, 陆 is also used as the accounting form of "six", 拾 as "ten", and 弍 (貳) as "two".

Female Horse Rice

Most people love their mother or mothers (children with lesbian parents and/or born from fertilized eggs via surrogate mother would have more than one mother). But, it takes a special talent to screw up “mommy” so bad that it would be read as “female horse rice”.

http://www.tatuadores.com/japo-kini-daktat-sevilla-DSCF2568.JPG

媽咪 is Chinese transliteration of “mommy”.

Too bad the tattooist has split 媽 into two characters 女 (female), 馬 (horse), and forgot about the partial 口 in 咪.

I hope her mother is proud.

Rice Covered Balls

Since both Chinese and Japanese use the same or similar Chinese characters, translations often change their meanings when they are read one way or another.


(original)

The top character 米 means “rice”, and in Japanese, it is used to represent “America”. Second character 盖 means “cover, hide, protect”.

Last character 丸 means “small round object; pellet, pill”. However in Japanese, it means “circle, perfection, purity, and suffix for ship names” and “testicle/balls” in Chinese, as in 睾丸.

The tattoo may be a phonetic name translation or a ship’s name in Japanese, but when I read it:

“rice covered balls”